Welcome to the Legal Software Suppliers Association

The Legal Software Suppliers Association (LSSA) is the UK industry body for legal systems developers and vendors. Representing most of the leading UK suppliers, it aims to both set and maintain professional standards within the industry and manage areas of mutual interest between lawyers and software providers.

The LSSA has numerous links with legislative bodies – such as the Land Registry, LAA, Law Society, etc – and is committed to developing clear channels of communication to enable law firms to gain the maximum benefit from their selected software solutions.

In my opinion, the role of the LSSA in the legal software marketplace has never been more important than it is today for two key reasons.

One – we’re all changing the way we use technology, law firms included. In the workplace, the desktop may still prevail but with a growing requirement for remote, flexible working, even if just to accommodate essential out-of-office tasks such as court appearances, other technological devices are equally widely adopted; tablets and smartphones amongst them. For legal practices, this is about being as productive as they can be and providing better service levels to end clients who, these days, expect more for less.

As a representative body of legal software suppliers, each of our members strives to provide cross-device-supported systems via the cloud which modern-day solicitors can utilise at various touchpoints throughout their day, wherever they are, whatever time it is and whichever device is to hand.

So, we need to collaborate between ourselves and with law firms to keep developing our solutions according to their ever-evolving demands. Also, the LSSA needs to branch out and extend its membership even further thereby offering the legal sector a far wider spectrum of options when they turn to us for guidance during their shortlisting process.

Two – legislation and regulatory requirements aren’t static either. As well as keeping our clients happy, we need to satisfy professional bodes and government organisations that our members’ systems adhere to all the latest changes, reforms and newly introduced rulings. To do this to best effect, we must strengthen our links with these agencies, lobby harder for information from them and feed back to LSSA members in a timely manner to drive development continually onwards.

I see all this as a key component of the LSSA’s strategy for the coming year. Hopefully, in my role as chairman, I can build upon the successes of my predecessors by focusing on these areas.